How to manage the Story
Narrative control You don't have direct narrative control over the player's actions. What you can do is given players options to see or do or try. Which is prompting. Here's something interesting you see. Have you considered this? Make a roll for history maybe your character knows something of the history of this place? A far superior situation is that the players themselves explore the world on with their own direction, merits and skills. This is a more dynamic, driven by character needs and interests. Planning for the unplannable: The 5x5 method http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2011/03/04/the-5x5-method-compendium/ You don't plan a narrative with steps from A to D. Instead come up with 5 events/plot points that the players can encounter. They don't have to be in the order you came up with them then can be in just about any order. This can be as simple few phrases on an index card like # Encounter a Griffin trapped in a net. # The Orc tribe set that net # The Secret mine behind the orcs home # The Drake in the secret mine # The entrance to the Under dark Then as you run the campaign work theses into the narrative as you go along. The gist of the encounter remains though the circumstances may change. And they don’t have to be encountered in order. This means you have something prepreped. The method gets it’s 5x5 name from creating a grid of plot points on the right and all other threads and background elements on the top as columns. So lets say Corum the warrior has a background thread where it’s considered a great fighter of orcs. That’s a column that you would write across the top of the grid. Then link to perhaps the “The orc tribe set the net.” plot element. As you develop new quests or story threads use the grid to tie back to these 5 plot points. This way all your story threads intersect with one of your major encounters or plot points at least tangible way. And there’s a reason for them to create a conflict or drama. How do I tell a story using the medium of RPGs? First it helps to understand basic story structure. of the heroic story All DnD stories generally fall into the Heroic Monomyth popularized by Carl Jung. https://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-to-structure-a-story-the-eight-point-arc/ # Stasis - starting for a stable position in a safe place. # Trigger or the call to adventure. # The quest - answering the call and going on a journey of discovery # Surprise - there's some surprising set back # Critical choice - there's a choice to be made to be the hero # Climax - The do or die moment # Reversal - The hero learns something about them selves or the world # Resolution - the end of the adventure wrap up and return to statis. The 8 point story arc method is generally a good starting point. You don't need all the steps you can jump through just the Trigger, Quest, Surprise/Obstacle, Critical Choice, Climax, and Resolution. Story Hooks Story hooks are invitations to adventure. The farmer that needs help. The dragon ravaging the town. The mysterious mine. DnD is about giving dangling lines of a story and having players finish that plot. So to give use the 8 point arc as a method you just drop Triggers about and it's up to characters to follow those triggers. This isn't a novel RPGS are not like books or novels. RPGs are collaborative storytelling where the group of you are telling a story together. It's more like improv than any other medium. This means players have to be vested and engaging with the world. Otherwise, if things only happen to the players but the players don't proactively do things on their own that’s a big problem for the any role playing game.